Re: Two Utah freeway projects begin.

On Apr 2, 8:34 pm, James W Anderson <jand...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Apr 2, 5:28 pm, JG <jgrov...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:



On Apr 2, 1:52 pm, James W Anderson <jand...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Two huge Utah freeway projects are now underway.

1.  'Mountainview Freeway'.  Grading and other work has begun on this
west Salt Lake and NW Utah County project, mainly on the south end.
Will run from the interchange where US-89 merges with I-15 to U-68,
then follow U-68 briefly to an alignment that will roughly follow 64th
and 72nd West in Salt Lake County, much of that segment will be 10
lanes, with two of them being HOV lanes.

It will be six lanes from about 104th South to the south end at I-15.

This project should be completed by 2013.  They are building the
feeders first, then the mainlanes.

2.  The I-15 'CORE' project, or 'CORridor Expansion, kicked off this
week as well.  This will cost 1.7 billion dollars, and be done in just
under three years.

What it will do:  Add two lanes each way between Spanish Fork's US 6
interchange and Lehi Main Street (U-73).  There will be up to 12 lanes
total excluding auxiliary lanes.

A variety of interchanges will be built too.  Here's a rundown.

Exit 257 Spanish Fork Main Street (U-156 South).  Widen surface road
under,freeway, build new bridge over.  Diamond.

Exit 258 US 6 'Moark Connector'.  Big h ybrid interchange, likely
maintaining to a degree the trumpet interchange that exists there now
to some extent.

Exit 260 U-77 Springville 400 South.  No changes save for some ramp
reworking, was recently converted to a SPUI.

Exit 261 U-75 Springville (services Stouffers plant that makes those
big lasagnas that you get at the store among other things) connector
to US-89.  No change except to ramps, Recently rebuilt diamond
interchange.

Exit 263 US-189 University Ave and 1860 South.  Screwball interchange
will remain, built in 2000.  Ramp modification only where required.

Exit 265 U-114 Provo Center Street.  This will be the most unusual
interchange in the project.  Already christened 'The Racetrack' due to
its design, it is a 'rotary interchange', in other words, it works
like a roundabout.  It's oblong shape is what gave it the name 'The
Racetrack'.

Exit 269 U-265 University Parkway.  Rebuilt in 2000 also, ramp
modifications only, is a skewed SPUI.  Freeway goes to 12 lanes at
this point.

Exits 271, 272, Orem Center Street and U-52 Orem 800 North.  Both will
become SPUIs.

Exit 273 Orem 1600 North, ramp and road moficiation only under
freeway.  No appreciable changes other than widening the underpass for
1600 North.

Exit 275 Pleasant Grove Blvd.  Newer interchange, only recently
completed as well, will have some modification to the ramp and
structure, probably to accomodate the width of the road under the
overpass, Pleaseant Grove Blvd goes over I-15.

Exit 276 U-180 American Fork 500 East.  Utah's 2nd Diverging Diamond.
They will be using the 'bridge farm' technique being used at Exit 278
(below) to construct this.

Exit 278, U-145 American Fork Main Street/Pioneer Crossing (Saratoga
Springs).  Westbound side of Diverging Diamond complete,  Eastbound
side bridge being built just north of the UTA park and ride lot.
Target completion date is July of this year.

Exit 279 Lehi Main Street U-73.  Convert interchange to SPUI.

Project website:  http://udot.utah.gov/i15core

3.  Five CFI's coming.  Five 'Continuous Flow' interchanges to be
built this year.  Two on U-68 at U-173 (54th South) and 6200 South.
The U-173 one could be four-way CFI but I don't know yet,  Partly due
to ROW issues on U-68.

The other two are on U-154 Bangerter Highway at these two same cross
roads.  Those will appear on Bangerter itself, and will likely also
eliminate a ramp just south of 54th South to the K-Mart on the SW
corner.

4.  U-173 Flex Lanes.  Done in Phoenix, some Florida locales, etc..,
this will simply be a repaving and installation of lights project and
associated restriping.  Will run from U-68 Redwood Road to U-154
Bangerter only.

5.  U-171 35th South project.  Mainlanes done, busway also mostly
complete.  Shelter appeared in center divider at 32nd West recently
for EB passengers, buses are not using the busway yet.  Runs from
U-154 to 2850 West.

Add to this TRAX construction for three lines (U-186 will have the
North Temple Viaduct demolished shortly, 18 month or so closure to
entire overpass until it is rebuilt), TRAX line to 2200 West, and TRAX
construction on various surface roads near 3500 South, and you can see
we have quite a lot of large projects going on here.

The last one is I-15 at 114th South.  Lots of work still here, will be
finished this fall also.  114th South goes under, no idea what
interchange type this will be.

Another benefit of State Capitol == Major City.

Salt Lake itself has only just under 200,000 and that is some 15 miles
from the 114th South interchange, and the 35th South project is wholly
within West Valley City.  However one of the TRAX lines and in
particular the one associated with 35th South that ends by Valley Fair
Mall and just south of 35th South, starts barely in SLC itself, and
maybe at most a mile of that line is in SLC proper.

Salt Lake goes no further south than about I-80 on the east of I-15
and U-201 on the west.

The county is said to have a million people.  Something not known to
many, because of not knowing about the history of the LDS Church, is
that Brigham Young once said that one day the Salt Lake Valley would
at some future time have three million people living there.  The
Mountainview Freeway is going in an area where as many as 750,000 will
live in the next 30 years, there are already plans to develop the area
west of 56th West, U-172.  Rio Tinto (Kennecott) owns a good chunk of
that land now and will likely be the developer of it.  'Daybreak', at
114th South and Bangerter, is the first of these.  A TRAX light rail
line is also going to that development, and its main landmark visible
very clearly from Bangerter is a recently-completed LDS temple, which
can be seen for up to a mile in either direction on Bangerter.  Here's
a view straight west looking at the front (Bangerter would be behind
the person who took the picture), the side view is even more
spectacular and that's what you see more of from the highway.

http://www.lds.org/temples/main/photo/0,11505,2020-1-597-1,00.html

What does the area do for water supply, wells or mountain runoff ??
.

Relevant Pages

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